Thrift, economy and artistic excellence were in evidence in Palo Alto tonight as Magnificat (essentially two people: Susan Harvey and Warren Stewart) started its Bay Area rounds with yet another opera production, this time the two-singer Pergolesi 1733 "La Serva Padrona." The news is that those two, Jennifer Ellis (Serpina) and David Newman (Uberto) are young, brilliant artists. (The silent role of Vespone was athletically performed by Paul Del Bene.) The First Lutheran Church of Palo Alto is a building only Garrison Keillor could love: a small, square space with white walls and a ceiling of wooden crossbeams, it has the appearance (and acoustics) of a one-room school in the middle of the prairie. With non-existent sightlines from the pews, it's a miracle that any performance can be enjoyed there, but enjoy the audience did. Magnificat made use of "La Serva Padrona," written as a comic interlude for another Pergolesi opera, as a two-part main offering, with a Pergolesi violin concerto and violin sonata opening each half. Rob Diggins played the solos, as well as acting as the leader of the six-person orchestra (which includes both Harvey and Stewart). It's nothing short of amazing how Pergolesi managed to produce so much good music, having started composing at age 21, in ill health, and dead by 26! The two singers were truly impressive. Ellis (who looks ineligible for a driver's license or the purchase of alcohol) sings with strong projection, great accuracy, stage presence, good diction, and moments of dazzling voice production. In addition to the Baroque repertoire she's been featured in by several local organizations, she has the voice and the sound to sing anything from Rossini to Verdi to musicals -- she could do pretty much anything she wanted to do. Newman is equally impressive, a big man with a big, flexible, beautiful voice. He tackled the difficult role a abused gentleman bachelor manfully. The production is going the Berkeley's First Congregational Church Saturday at 8, and to San Francisco's St. Gregory Episcopal Church for a 4 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask] http://mrichter.simplenet.com/files/calendar.htm